Causes of WW1

• Militarism is countries increasing the size of their armed forces and spending more on their countries defence
• Alliances are a way of reducing the risk of war by reducing the possibility of a country going to war with another country. Many countries began creating alliances as tensions increased
• Imperialism is countries wanting to grow their empire by taking over other countries especially in Africa.
• Nationalism is the people of the country wanting their country to be the best and most powerful country in the world.
• The triple alliance formed in 1882, this included Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy. (They were also known as the central powers)
• Kaiser Wilhelm ii wanted Germany to be seen as a world power and had dreams of creating germany its own empire. This is known as Weltpolitik.
• Germany grew worried of encirclement by France and Russia when they formed an alliance in 1892
• Serbia (over the border from Austria Hungary) became more powerful following the balkan wars which increased tensions as they were supported by Russia.
• The triple entente was formed in 1907 including Britain, France and Russia
• Britain had adopted a policy of splendid isolation, which meant that it would not get involved in European affairs in the early 19th century.
• The entente cordiale was signed in 1904 between Britain and France to settle disputes over african colonies but also helped bring peace
• The anglo-Russian entente was signed between Russia and Britain in 1907
• It was known that France wanted to colonise Morocco, but the Kaiser arrived in morocco in 1905 to publicly speak in favour of moroccan independence
• Neither of those happened leading to the Algeciras conference in 1906 where Britain backed France leaving the Kaiser humiliated
• Violence eventually broke out in morocco in 1911 where France sent troops to protect the sultan but really they were attempting to take control of morocco
• The kaiser was furious and sent a gunboat (the panther) to morocco causing Britain to fear Germany might create a naval base which would then put their colonies in danger
• A conference was then held and France and Britain backed each other against Germany meaning France was confirmed to have control over morocco and Germany was only given a small piece of land
• The Balkans was dominated by the Ottoman empire and both Russia and A-H wanted to control this region
• In 1912 The Ottoman presence in the balkan’s was finished as Russia created the Balkan league which included Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. They defeated the Ottomans in 6 weeks and Serbia doubled in size annoying Bulgaria.
• In 1913 Bulgaria fought a war against the balkan league and they were defeated quickly meaning serbia gained more land
• The naval arms race started in 1906 with the creation of the Dreadnought by the British navy.
• The Dreadnought was able to fire shells over a five mile distance so Britain built 29 of them by 1914 and in response Germany built 17
• In preparation for war Germany by conscription meaning they had a large army but not the largest but they were very well trained and very well equipped, Their plan was the schlieffen plan where they would defeat France quickly and turn their attention to Russia.
• Austria Hungary had a large army but were relying on Germany to help hold Russia back meaning they needed the schlieffen plan to succeed.
• Whereas Britain had had ongoing discussions with france over military before 1914. They disliked conscriptions and relied on their well trained and well equipped army of 150,000 men known as the British Expeditionary Force and they were deployed to France quickly for support.
• France had a large and well equipped army and a plan named Plan 17, they planned to cross the French-German border and advance deep into Germany.
• Russia was poorly equipped but their army was enormous.
• On the 28th june 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited Bosnia and was assasinated by the black hand gang.
• Austria hungary demanded that serbia punished those responsible for the murder of archduke ferdinand which included the arrest of all members of the black hand group and the execution of gavrilo princip. The demands also included an apology and compensation for the death of archduke ferdinand.
• Following the assassination Germany backs Austria Hungary to investigate the situation and this led A-H to give Serbia an Ultimatum.
• Serbia accepted all but one point which was losing control of its justice system, This led A-H to declare war on Serbia meaning Russia mobilised its army for Servia ultimately leading to the Germans declaring war on Russia
• The Schliefen plan was modified to go straight through Belgium which was stopped because of the Treaty of London which respected Belgiums neutrality.
• Germany violated this treaty meaning Britain declared war on Germany the 4th August 1914.